Water Contamination Archives

Near Coasts, Rising Seas Could Also Push Up Long-Buried Toxic Contamination

February 8, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /NPRby Laura Klivans

Marquita Price grew up spending lots of time at her grandmother’s one-story lavender house in Deep East Oakland. It’s a place she’s always considered home, and where her grandmother still lives. So Price, an urban planner, was upset to learn about a lesser-known aspect of climate change fueled by sea level rise: it could cause the groundwater beneath this formerly-industrial community to rise, and wreak slow-motion havoc in the process.

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DuPont, 3M Win Dismissal of California PFAS Lawsuit

January 25, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Bloomberg Lawby Peter Hayes

3M Co. and E.I. DuPont de Nemours Inc. shook off a California water utility’s claims that they contaminated the state water supply with PFAS after the Central District of California found the utility failed to establish jurisdiction.

Golden State Water Co. alleges that the companies “directed and instructed” intermediaries and end users of their products to dispose of them in a way they should have known may cause contamination.

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What Happens When a Rural Area’s Only Well is Contaminated?

November 19, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /CalMattersby Rebecca Sohn

In the spring of 2013, Jocelyn Walters moved Nativearth, her family’s small shoe business, into a warehouse in Mariposa Industrial Park that gave them more space to grow.

But there was one quirk of the new space she hadn’t foreseen.

The industrial park, which has only four businesses and isn’t connected to the town’s water system, gets its water from a well on her family’s property on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park. So Walters found herself helping run a water company from a shoe business.

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California Water PFAS Lawsuit – An Increasing Trend?

November 3, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /The National Law Review

On October 27, 2020, a California water PFAS lawsuit was filed by the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency against several companies, in which it is alleged that the companies are responsible for PFAS water contamination in southern California.

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Pipes Could Release Toxic Chromium Into Tap Water

October 28, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Chemical & Engineering Newsby Janet Pelley

Hexavalent chromium is a carcinogen that was made famous by the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich,” which dramatized a case of industrial pollution that contaminated water supplies in California. A new study shows that Cr(VI) can slip into drinking water when commonly used chlorine disinfectants corrode cast iron water distribution pipes.

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Lessons from Camp Fire Could Help Prevent Water Contamination After North Complex

October 14, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Enterprise Recordby Natalie Hanson

Fear of contaminating precious local water sources is one way devastating wildfires continue to be felt in communities in Butte County, where the debris of burnt homes from recent fires sits near a watershed used by many in Northern California.

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As Wildfires Ravage the West, Contaminated Water Raises Health Concerns

October 12, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Stat Newsby Priyanka Runwal

A few weeks after the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire raged through parts of northern California, Gerald and Serene Buhrz returned to their Santa Rosa home, turned on the kitchen sink faucet, and were hit with a stinging smell.

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Unsafe to Drink: Wildfires Threaten Rural Towns With Tainted Water

October 5, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

For more than a month after a wildfire raced through his lakeside community and destroyed his Napa County home, Kody Petrini couldn’t drink the water from the taps. He wasn’t even supposed to boil it. And, worried about harming his 16-month-old, Petrini wouldn’t wash his youngest son Levi with it.

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DuPont, Chemours, 3M Sued Over PFAS in California Water

September 30, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Bloomberg Lawby Peter Hayes

3M Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours Inc., Chemours Co., and Corteva Inc. are facing a suit by Golden State Water Co. over PFAS contamination of the state water supply. The water supplier seeks to recover from 3M as the only manufacturer of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid in the U.S. PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid are both in a family of chemical compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

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Why Dangerous ‘Forever Chemicals’ are Allowed in US Drinking Water

September 25, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /The Guardianby Ryan Felton

In 2014, residents of Horsham Township, near Philadelphia, learned that their water had been contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals linked to an array of health problems, including learning delays in children and cancer. Those residents include Frank and Lisa Penna, who allege in a lawsuit that their water was among the contaminated supplies.

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